English Quiz : Reading comprehension For SBI,SSC,RBI Exams

Directions (Q.1-10): Read the following
passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases
have been printed in bold italicto help you locate them.

The debate over the moves by the Central and
the Jammu and Kashmir governments to resettle Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir is
one that will only bring pain to any well-wisher of the State. To understand
this, one has to go back in time, when the second half of the 1980s saw Kashmir
spiral out of control, gripped by violence, suspicion and dread. What had begun as an ethnic
conflict was soon imparted a religious colour by Pakistan’s Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI). The Pandits, a Hindu minority in the Kashmir Valley, were
targeted by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), even though the organisation
had sought to build on the original secular foundations of the National
Conference, and by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a secessionist outfit, which sparked
their exodus. By 2008,
their population, as assessed by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS),
was reduced to 651 families from 75,343 families on January 1, 1990. Nearly
70,000 families fled in the turmoil
of 1990-92, and even though the violence was brought under control, most of the
remaining families left thereafter.

By 1990 — I was Special Commissioner,
Anantnag, in South Kashmir then — the public had ceased to visit government
offices. But in early March, several hundred people from the Nai Basti
neighbourhood went to the Special Commissioner’s office in Khannabal demanding
to see me. Because of the disturbed circumstances, I had set up office and
residence in the rest house in the district headquarters. Mohammad Syed Shah,
generally known as Syed Shah, the brother of the separatist leader, Shabbir
Shah, and Muslim United Front (MUF) member of the dissolved State Assembly,
demanded to know why Pandits were leaving en masse and in turn why the
administration was doing nothing about it. Mr. Shah accused the administration
of encouraging the migration so that the Army would be left free to unleash its
heavy artillery on all habitations. When I asked the delegation if it believed
that I would be party to such a plan, this was their response: ‘I had been kept
in the dark, while they were privy to “secret” information’. That the Pandits
were apprehensive was
hardly surprising, I said. Places of worship, like the one in Anantnag, where
the majority went, were being used to issue threats to them over loudspeakers.
I learnt later that these inflammatory sermons, and their reverberating public
applause, were audio recordings circulated to mosques to be played over
loudspeakers at prayer time. Local Muslims needed to reassure the Pandits of
their safety, I said. The administration would provide security whenever a
threat to the Pandits was anticipated, but how effective it would all be would
depend on unstinted public
support, given that the residences of the Pandits were scattered. The gathering
concurred and dispersed. I requested State Governor Jagmohan that he appeal to
the Pandits, in a telecast, that they stay on in Kashmir, and assure them of
their safety on the basis of the assurances of the Anantnag residents.
Unfortunately, the only announcement to this effect was that “refugee” camps
were being set up in every district, and Pandits who felt threatened could move
to them rather than leave the Valley. Pandits in service who felt threatened
were free to leave their stations; they would continue to be paid their
salaries. I relate this story because the present flurry of allegations brings
a sense of de-ja-vu. The Pandits — more than 1,20,000 in the early 1980s —
numbered about 7,000 in the Kashmir Valley, in 2005.

1. Which of the following is the meaning of
the word “Exodus”?

A. Creating riot

B. Extinction

C. Mass departure

D. Fear

E. None of these

Answer:
C

2. Which of the following is the synonym of
the word “Dread”?

A. Apprehension

B. Fusillade

C. Lachrymose

D. Confidence

E. Stagnation

Answer:
A

3. Choose an appropriate
Title for the above passage :

A. Return to a lost paradise.

B. Furious Kashmir

C. The
Birth of a riot

D. Deadly Co-existence in Kashmir

E. Born to die

Answer:
D

4. Which of the following options best
describes the meaning of the phrase “privy to secret
information”.

A. wrong information but seems to be secret

B. All
rubbish

C. Forwarding wrong but secret information

D. Well acquainted with

E. None of the above

Answer:
D

5.Which of the following is not true according
to the passage?

A. Kashmiri pandits moved to refugee camps even
after the assurance from the state governor.

B. Author set up an office and resident in the
affected district headquarter.

C. Mosques were to console the affected pundits
and to assure them safety on loudspeakers.

D. Some people blamed the author for promoting
the migration.

E. None of the above.

Answer:
C

6. Which of the following is not the synonym
of the word “turmoil”?

A. chaos

B. pandemonium

C. mayhem

D. bedlam

E. None of these

Answer:
E

7. What is the synonym of the word “apprehensive”?

A. fidgety, ,

B. strained

C. tense

D. All
of the above

E. None of the above

Answer:
D

8. In the passage, Mr Shah accused the administration for………….. .

A. having pandits killed in the district.

B. migration of the pandits

C. distracting the inquiry

D. not
maintaining peace in the valley

E. none of the above

Answer:
B

9. What is not the synonym of word “unstinted”?

A. lavish

B. magnanimous

C. generous

D. All
of the above

E. None of the above

Answer:
E

10. Which of the following organizations is not mentioned in the passage?